Jimmy Woo and the other Agents of Atlas, while clearly a group of "good guys" (at least to us readers!), have occasionally used the fact that the Atlas Foundation was formerly an evil empire to their advantage.

Below, in two full pages and one panel from the eight-page Agents of Atlas story "The Heist" in Dark Reign: New Nation, they break into Fort Knox (very publicly) and make off with a large amount of solid gold bullion. Their aim is to figure out who was behind a plan to buy weapons without the inconvenience of getting Congress approval first.

Step 1: Distract the guards on patrol duty (i.e. send in Venus).

Step 2: Get the big bruisers (Namora and M-11) to take out weaponry that poses a threat.

Step 3: Dramatic entrance (flying saucer optional).

Venus rejoins the team.How I adore that last panel! :D

They use this ruse to try and dig deeper into Norman's Dark Reign activities. They managed to trick him as well as the New Avengers for a while, so it was apparently a good (and effective) idea while it lasted. They returned the bullion to Fort Knox two months later (Agents of Atlas #8).

Of course, they've also been on the receiving end - particularly at the hands of Jimmy's once-girlfriend and current (during the particular story arc) nemesis, Suwan a.k.a the Jade Claw. She is the head of Great Wall, an offshoot and rival of Jimmy's Atlas Foundation. After commandeering Atlas' communications channels (twice) and causing the saucer heavy damage in a firefight, she decides to enjoy herself a little - on a personal level - during another fight.

Three pages from Agents of Atlas #11.

This buys the Atlas forces enough time to get home safely. Jimmy manages to get back as well and later, when Jade Claw continues to cause major problems for Atlas but Bob finds something that could be useful versus Jade Claw's own powerful killer robot, decides it's time for a counter-attack. The results of that can be seen here in a post by colonel_green.

Note: I think this brings us to the posting limit for this issue.

So there they are: the Agents as heroes both playing *at* being villains and being played *by* villains. I love their versatility and I miss them.